The present invention relates to improvements in truck type vehicles which include a front end loading hopper and boom to enable lifting, transporting, and depositing loads of particulate material into dusting or particulate material dispensing aircraft. While the basic idea of a box frame front end boom with pivotally carried hopper has been previously used, it has become highly desirable that hopper level control and dispensing from the hopper be more convenient and versatile along with safety features pertaining to boom adjustment, particularly when the loader is used adjacent and close to material dispensing aircraft which are suceptible to damage. This present invention provides improvements in such factors.
Insofar as can be determined the closest prior art patents are similar to the following U.S. Patents: G. R. Dempster et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,275 to a Front End Loader; C. E. Rouse U.S. Pat. No. 3,232,460 to a Concrete Hoisting and Placing Apparatus; C. R. Thatches U.S. Pat. No. 3,276,610 to Loading Device for Pickups and Other Vehicles; and R. C. Jones U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,441 to a Roof-Gravel Removal Apparatus. The only front end loaders found were similar to those depicted in noted U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,275 and those are the kind which pick-up a hopper or container and pass it up and back over the front of the vehicle to be dumped in a rear storage bin.
The present invention involves a vehicle with front carried hopper on a boom which can raise and lower the hopper for filling and discharge into an aircraft used for dusting, seeding or other material dispensing. The hopper has an improved discharge valve arrangement and safety features ensuring against hopper damage and aircraft damage due to boom power operator failure.